I am finally able to catch shrimp consistently in the summer. So I have decided to add a built in aerator to run overnight to keep the shrimp alive. The current version circulates water every minute which works fine in the summer while on the water. but combined with talon usage potentially drains the cranking battery. The Frabil air pump only uses 1.5 volts .170 amps. Compared to the SPX pump at 12v 1 amp it’s a no brainer! I’m setup to run the air pump all night as a test. The last test ran for 10 hours and the cranking battery dropped to only 11.9 volts using a 12v to 1.5v regulator. It worked but the design was not efficient and wasted energy. Hopefully the new design will work just as long and use less power.
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Another thing that works is pour a quart of hydrogen peroxide into the water. Adds lots more Free O to the water and will not hurt the bait
Didn’t know that about peroxide.
JNC…
Way above my head.But pretty cool.
That’s a pro tip right there Natch! A buddy of mine has a 55 gallon drum with small holes drilled in it strapped to his floating dock.
Thanks. I learned about this a few years ago. It’s really pretty simple chemistry. . I keep it on the boat to make the bait really lively. And one quart in 3gal of water will keep bait alive easy overnight. Catch a big un!!!
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Dang, did not know that.
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This! I love this! Man, I’m a pretty decent electrical and instrument tech, but when it comes to the electronics side of things, I have almost no experience. But I do enjoy learning and seeing this type stuff. Thanks for sharing your adventure. Keep the updates coming please.
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That’s too small for the bubbler haha
@snickers I made it. Custom PCB. It’s probably overkill but I love electronics. I love fishing salt more. Lol. Put the two together and there ya go.
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12 hr runtime. Alternating on/off every minute. Cranking battery voltage 12.2v! That’s from a 12.4v full charge. Awesome!
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Pretty neat. How are you going to package it all up and seal it to survive in a salt environment?
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I bet he could get really creative with clear epoxy resin once he figures out exactly what his configuration should be. I can’t wait to see the final product and order one! 
Non-conductive black epoxy. I’m not sure when I’ll do it though. Once it’s covered you cannot get to anything to troubleshoot. Salt is not a problem for me. The first version lasted 2 years. There’s a picture of it on this site/topic. I make it to the salt maybe 4-6 times per year so that’s in my favor……wish it wasn’t.
And I can’t hardly program the radio in my truck…
Making progress has been tough with work and family but finally got some time today to finish up one more feature and do more testing. Last weekend my wife and I spent some time in G’town shopping and finished the day at Pawleys Oyster Bar. I drank way too much and ended up with a headache the next morning. So we decided to sleep late 'til 10ish…This got me thinking what if I had my boat with the aerator running?
Im pretty sure it would have killed the cranking battery. So I have added a battery monitoring circuit that will have a controllable threshold to shutdown the pump when the voltage drops below 11.8v. This would kill any bait in the livewell but thats life Mr. Shrimp!
Once I complete the circuit analysis I will be sending the design off for manufacturing! Wish me luck!
Also if there are any software developers on the site…I need help with the HTML and CSS. The page is getting too busy and I am having a hard time placing the web components to keep the page organized
If we could get Skinnyj back, he was into the programming stuff.
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Wish I could help more, you’re getting out of my wheelhouse now. Still, keep the updates coming please.